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The Hassocks Hog
The Hassocks Hog was a competitor from West Sussex that fought in Series 6 and Series 7 of Robot Wars. Two different versions entered, using the name Hassocks Hog 2 in the Seventh Wars, but both lost in the first round. Versions of Hassocks Hog The Hassocks Hog The original Hassocks Hog was a large box wedge with a flipper, similar to the Series 6 and 7 versions of Iron-Awe, only taller and featuring a self-righting “tail” on the top instead of an axe. This version had no real efficiency motors and the flipper was low power, acting more as a lifter, but the robot was quite fast, with a top speed of 17mph. Despite surviving to the end of its first round battle in The Sixth Wars, it was deemed by the judges to have become immobilised, as it was only driving around in circles, having lost drive on one side, and it was therefore eliminated. Hassocks Hog 2 After the defeat of the original Hassocks Hog, a new machine, Hassocks Hog 2, styled on the team's banner as Hassocks Hog II, was built, designed to address the flaws of the original machine. The second version was more compact, fully enclosed in armour, and featured efficiency motors and a much more powerful, 16 bar pneumatic flipper. The improvements did not help the new machine do any better in the competition, as it was flipped over very quickly and failed to self right because its flipper failed to work, meaning it went out in the first round again. Both machines had spotted underpants painted on the bottom of the robot. These were shown in a post-battle interview in Series 6, and were shown to the audience as Mr. Psycho picked up the robot after defeat in Series 7. Both machines had large, furry, stabilising ears, and the team wore hats with furry ears that matched the ears on the robot. The Team The Hassocks Hog was built and driven by its team captain, Noel Poncelet, who was convinced to build the machine by his three sons, Jonathan, Robert and Daniel, with encouragement from his wife Jude.http://www.hassockshog.co.uk/the_team.htm Jonathan and Robert Poncelet joined their father on the televised team in both Series 6 and 7. Although the team were based in Hassocks, the namesake of the robot, Noel Poncelet's father was French, and before Series 7, he was offered the possibility of representing France, but nothing came of this idea. If Hassocks Hog had represented France, it would have been the only robot ever to do so. Qualification The team originally planned to enter Series 5, but were not ready in time for the Qualifiershttp://www.hassockshog.co.uk/build_diary_1.htm. At the Series 6 qualifiers, The Hassocks Hog fought Ming 3, Revolution 2 and Immortalis. It won the battle, therefore gaining an automatic spot in Series 6. Ming 3 and Revolution 2 received discretionary places to qualifyhttp://www.hassockshog.co.uk/events_series_6.htm#qualifyers. Hassocks Hog 2 fought Disc-O-Inferno, Hannibal and Sabretooth at the Series 7 qualifiers. It lost the battle, after receiving a large gash down the right-hand side and damage to the right drive train from the disc of Disc-O-Inferno, but received a discretionary place to qualifyhttp://www.hassockshog.co.uk/events_series_7.htm#qualifyers. Robot History Series 6 In Heat H of the Sixth Wars, The Hassocks Hog was drawn up against the experienced Ming 3 machine, along with Team Panda's Hot Pants, and Spam. The Hassocks Hog had already fought Ming 3 in its qualifier battle for the Sixth Wars, so it went straight for Andrew Cotterell's machine. Ming 3 tried to skewer The Hassocks Hog with its crusher, but The Hassocks Hog ultimately escaped without much damage. Shortly after, a ramming attack from Spam impeded the The Hassocks Hog's movement. The end of the motor support plate had been bent by the attack and the chain ultimately jumped off the sprocket. The left wheel seemed to freewheel and The Hassocks Hog was reduced to moving in circles. Despite being impeded, The Hassocks Hog survived to the end of the battle, whilst Hot Pants and Spam were both pitted. However, the judges intervened and deemed that The Hassocks Hog's reduced mobility meant it was actually immobile for beyond the allowed time. As such, The Hassocks Hog was eliminated with Hot Pants, and Spam survived to go through to round 2. In the post-battle interview, Noel showed off The Hassocks Hog's pants to Philippa Forrester. Series 7 In the first round of the Seventh Wars, Hassocks Hog 2 faced a tough draw against Dantomkia, King B Powerworks and Rick, all of whom had either reached a semi-final or won a side tournament in the past. Shortly after the battle began, Dantomkia flipped Hassocks Hog 2 over and pushed it onto the flame pit. Hassocks Hog 2 attempted to self-right, but the flipper failed to function and the ears began to burn. With Hassocks Hog 2 immobile, Refbot counted it out. Mr. Psycho grappled it and tried to hammer it before dragging it around the arena. Mr. Psycho dropped it on the Drop Zone, only for the hog to gain a little bit of life, spinning away from the Drop Zone, helped by Dantomkia and King B Powerworks pushing it. Mr. Psycho picked it up again, spinning it around so the audience could see the pants, before dropping it out of the arena, just before the battle went to a judges' decision for the other three machines. It was later discovered the robot had stopped working due to one of the battery terminals falling off. Results |} |} Wins/Losses *Wins: 0 *Losses: 2 Series Record HH2chassis.gif|Hassocks Hog 2's chassis Hassockshog 2 pits.jpg|Hassocks Hog 2 in the pits Outside Robot Wars Aside from its televised appearance, Hassocks Hog 2 competed at a number of live events after Series 7 was filmed. This included an event at Worthing in December 2003, Brighton in February 2004, Portsmouth in May 2004 where Hassocks Hog 2 earned its revenge over Dantomkia by dislodging its removable link, and ModelWorld Brighton again in February 2005, where Hassocks Hog 2's flipper was bent out of alignment by Kan-Opener. In the second half of 2007, Noel Poncelet built The Hassocks Hog 3 as a featherweight machinehttps://web.archive.org/web/20180902095639/http://hassockshog.co.uk/build_diary_3.htm. This 12kg featherweight was wedge-shaped and armed with a 10-bar pneumatic flipper, and could drive at speeds of 10-15mph on its 12v drill motors. Trivia Initial_Sketch.gif|The initial sketch for The Hassocks Hog, armed with a biting mouth and tusks paper_model_1.gif|A paper model, used to design the original Hassocks Hog Hog1Flip.jpg|Hassocks Hog 2 flips the original Hassocks Hog during testing hog_with_unpainted_armour.gif|Hassocks Hog 2 before being painted HH2chassis.jpg|The chassis of Hassocks Hog 2, having been repaired following its Series 7 qualifier hog2_cartoon_on_trailer.gif|The Team Logo from Series 7, drawn by Rob Englebright of Killer Carrot 2 HHinsides.png|The internals of Hassocks Hog 2, at Brighton ModelWorld 2004 *The initial concept drawing of The Hassocks Hog had a biting mouth and sharp tusks. *Similar to Killerkat and Hellbent, Noel claimed that The Hassocks Hog was in love with Matilda, due to their similar design, but unfortunately neither of their battles featured Matilda as a House Robot. *The Hassocks Hog team were good friends with the Killer Carrot team, another group of roboteers from West Sussex. Noel Poncelet designed a spreadsheet to calculate flipper heights for them whilst they team were building the new Killer Carrot machine for the Seventh Wars, whilst the Dangerous Vegetable team painted them a team logo in exchange for some spare parts. *In their Series 6 battle, The Hassocks Hog team was the only team that had never appeared on the show before, and in their Series 7 battle, all three of their opponents had reached a Semi-Final, won a trophy, or both. *Noel Poncelet went on record saying his greatest fear in Robot Wars was high powered spinners, and was drawn against two of them in the Series 7 qualifier (Disc-O-Inferno and Sabretooth). *Robert and Jonathan Poncelet were so upset after losing in Round 1 of the Seventh Wars, Jayne Middlemiss took pity on them, tried to cheer them up and gave them a post battle interview, which no other losing Round 1 team had in The Seventh Wars (barring Terrorhurtz), but the interview was not shown on TV. References External Links *The Hassocks Hog website (archived) Category:UK Series competitors Category:Robots Thrown out of the Arena Category:Robots with alternate versions Category:Robots with multiple appearances without winning a battle Category:Robots from West Sussex Category:Animal Based Robots Category:Robots with Rear-hinged Flippers Category:Robots which debuted in Series 6